Order In The Court
by incandescens
Summary: A crossover between Bleach and Phoenix Wright. Not particularly serious. Set after Apollo Justice and during the Soul Society arc.
1. Part I

**Order In The Court: Part I**

Yamamoto had been truly shocked by the death of Aizen Sousuke. So young a Captain, so brutal a murder . . . and so annoying a pile of paperwork.

Fortunately the Chamber of 46 had been quick to issue instructions about how to handle the situation. They were still all locked up together (he suspected, in his more cynical moments, that they were just trying to avoid the paperwork) but had sent out a handwritten page of suggestions.

(Astonishing how much their handwriting looked like that of Aizen Sousuke. His eyes must be getting worse in his old age.)

Apparently the most efficient way of handling this would be . . . a formal trial.

A list of names was appended to serve as prosecuting and defense attorneys and assistants to same. Some of them were already dead, so would be easy to find. Others were still alive, but could be . . . requisitioned.

Yamamoto himself was listed as the presiding judge.

In the privacy of his rooms, he practiced hammering on the table with his staff and shouting, "Order! Order! Order in the court!" in his most accomplished manner.

He had to admit this was more useful than spending his time declaring an invasion and martial law.

There was also some nonsense about ryoka running around the place and being shot in via cannonball and trying to save Kuchiki Rukia, but he was sure that could sort itself out. That sort of thing usually did.

(Maybe if he ignored it, the paperwork would just do itself and go away.)


	2. Part II

**Order In The Court: Part II**

In general, the Defending Attorneys (And Assistants) room was being much quieter than the Prosecuting Attorneys (And Assistants) room.

Phoenix just wished he could close his eyes to what was going on in the corner ten feet away.

"Kitten," Godot (or perhaps he should call him Diego Armando) breathed into Mia's ear, "have you any idea how much I've missed you? How much I've _needed_ you?"

Mia giggled. (A noise that should not come from Phoenix's respected, admired, honoured mentor, whatever the circumstances.)

"It's so romantic," Maya sighed.

"He should be with the prosecutors," Phoenix complained.

"But he was a defending attorney first," Maya pointed out. "And they both look so happy -- ooh! Don't look, Pearl!"

"Why not?" Pearl asked, bright scarlet at the very thought. "And isn't that what you and Mystic Maya should be --"

"No," said Phoenix hastily. "Absolutely not."

"They're being rather noisy next door," Trucy said. "Do you think someone should go and tell them to keep it down?"

Phoenix and Apollo Justice looked at each other.

"No," Phoenix said. "Absolutely not."

"We should be interviewing the witnesses instead," Apollo said. "And the accused. And gathering evidence. While they're busy in there."

"_Especially_ while they're busy in there," Phoenix agreed. Odd. The noise from next door had stopped.

The door slammed open. Manfred von Karma stood there, sizzling taser still smoking in his hand. "I have been unanimously elected head of the prosecuting team," he said, "by sole conscious vote. Who is the head of the defending team?"

"Phoenix," Apollo said quickly.

"Mia," Phoenix said, almost as fast.

"Phoenix," Mia said. When Godot tried to say something, she waved him silent. "He's the only one here who's beaten von Karma before. Oh dear, did I say something about von Karma being defeated?"

Von Karma glared at her, then refocused on Phoenix. "Your pitiful divagations will not go unchallenged this time. We have positive evidence -- a letter written by the victim himself!"

"Before or after his death?" Phoenix asked. "I mean, it seems kind of vague, round here . . ."

"You will find out in court," von Karma sneered. "For the moment, you need only know that the accused is Hitsugaya Toushirou of the Tenth Division."

He swept out, slamming the door behind him.

He swept back in again. "And any attempt to gain information from our investigators and forensic scientists will be treated with the contempt that it deserves."

He swept out again.

"Kitten," Godot said, bending Mia into a waist-level dip-and-smooch, "I feel the call of the prosecutor's bench. Can you forgive me?"

"Only if you do your job," Mia sighed, after she'd got her breath back.

Godot saluted Phoenix with his mug of coffee (Phoenix still couldn't work out where he'd got hold of coffee _here_) and drifted out after von Karma.

"Right," Mia said briskly. "Crime scene, witnesses, accused, go go go!"

"I thought you said I was in charge," Phoenix protested.

"No," Mia said patiently. "I said you were the head of the defending team."

"Oh," Phoenix said, and scratched his head. "You know, I think there's a contradiction there somewhere . . ."

But Maya and Pearl were already dragging him out in search of evidence.


	3. Part III

**Order In The Court: Part III**

Phoenix fled down the corridor, hands over his ears, Pearl clinging to his shoulders. Maya was several paces ahead, and might manage to escape before their pursuer caught up with them. Phoenix had no such hope.

". . . and it wasn't his fault, he's the kindest and most noble and most heroic Captain, whoever did it needs to be executed, I just sat down and fell asleep because he said that I could wait there because I was feeling so nervous, I remember the exact way that he looked when he said it, the lamplight was glowing on his hair and the rims of his glasses and the sleeves of his yukata, and --"

Unohana Retsu stepped into the doorway. Maya, unable to stop in time, bounced off her. Phoenix managed to brake.

"Who," Unohana said in the sweetest and gentlest of tones, "is responsible for this?"

"It's not anyone's fault!" Hinamori Momo babbled. "It's this incredibly nice man called Godot who gave me some of this coffee he was drinking while he was asking me questions and now I feel really energised and as if I could run all over Seireitai and I wanted to tell these people about Aizen-taichou and how wonderful a man he was and how much I --"

"I see. And where is this Godot person?"

"-- well I did sort of pry the coffee mug out of his hand when I was finishing it and some of it went on his visor and it started smoking and he went into convulsions but I'm sure it's nothing serious --"

"Caffeine detox team, stat!" Unohana called. Medical shinigami came running from all directions.

Phoenix quietly collected the empty mug to add to his growing stack of evidence. If nothing else, maybe he'd be able to figure out where Godot got them from.


	4. Part IV

**Order In The Court: Part IV**

"You are at liberty to examine the scene of the crime," Kurotsuchi Nemu monotoned, "as long as you do not disturb anything."

"Blood tests?" Ema Skye said hopefully. "Luminol? Fingerprint checks? Footprint checks?"

"That would be disturbing the scene," Nemu said.

"Lists of witnesses, fraulein?" Klavier Gavin tried. He tossed his blond hair back from his face while posing in a hip-thrusting manner which Nemu recognised from certain private videos that were the property of the Shinigami Women's Association.

"There were none," she answered.

"So basically," Apollo Justice said, "we get to stand here and look at the big bloodstain on the wall?"

"Precisely," Nemu said. "I hope that this is of value to you."

"Well, I don't think it's much use!" Trucy objected. "And nor does Mr Hat!" She pirouetted, pouted, and somehow produced a large puppet . . . out . . . of . . . empty . . . space . . .

"How did you do that?" Nemu asked urgently. "What sort of kidou did you use to manifest that creation? Or is it a case of transdimensional space manipulation?"

"It's magic!" Trucy said happily. She tilted her hat and billowed her cape. "A magician never explains her secrets!"

Nemu frowned. She walked around the girl, examining the puppet. It was a large wooden thing. There was simply no way that the girl could have hidden it. "How precisely --"

"Do it again for the nice lady," Apollo said urgently. "In fact, why don't you take her for a little stroll while she works out how you do it?"

"Ja!" Klavier agreed. He gave Trucy a particularly melting smile. "We wouldn't want the nice Fraulein Shinigami to be distracted while she's solving the problem, would we?"

Ema blinked, then nodded. "We'll just stand here and not do anything at all! Especially not anything scientific!"

Reassured by this, Nemu turned back to Trucy. "Could you repeat that manifestation?" she asked.

"Of course!" Trucy said. She furled her cape round her, making the large puppet vanish. "Why don't we go round the corner here to talk about it, so that you can see it in a better light?"

"An excellent thought," Nemu agreed. She let Trucy lead her round the corner, then watched intensely while the girl made the thing appear a second time.

Some screams and crashes from the square that they had just left drew her attention away from the manifestation. "What do you think that is?" she asked.

"Probably my friends are just doing some healthy ladder-climbing and Polly had one of his little vertigo attacks and Prosecutor Gavin had to distract him and Ema fell off the ladder out of shock," Trucy suggested helpfully. "Nothing to worry about."

Nemu nodded. "Indeed. Now please vanish that thing again, while I watch."


	5. Part V

**Order In The Court: Part V**

"It was a perfectly ordinary night," Hitsugaya said stubbornly. "I didn't murder anyone. I don't usually murder people. Actually, I don't murder people at all."

Edgeworth nodded as he made a note. "Can you explain why the deceased should have accused you of any of the things that he accused you of?"

For the first time, Hitsugaya felt nervous. Could they have found out about the watermelons? "What did he accuse me of?" he asked.

"Yes, what did he accuse him of?" Mia Fey asked.

"The accusations will be produced in court tomorrow," Edgeworth said smugly. "Though I must admit that you would seem a little _young_ to have engaged in some of those practices."

"The accused's vice-captain says not to worry and that she'll take care of everything," Franziska von Karma announced, entering the room. "She also sends him this bottle of wine."

"What? No!!" Hitsugaya started to his feet. "You can't let her take care of the Division! She's totally disorganised! She'll make a mess of things! She'll disrupt my filing! She'll --" He sat back down again as Franziska snapped her whip in front of his nose.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Edgeworth said to Franziska, "but would Captain Hitsugaya's vice-captain be that extremely well-endowed blonde lady?"

Franziska sniffed. "She is. And the foolish fool sent him alcohol. As though she didn't expect me to pour it out and search the bottle for foolish secret messages."

"Were there any?"

Franziska wordlessly turned the bottle over. Written on the bottom was **DON'T WORRY, CAPTAIN, WILL PERJURE MYSELF IN COURT TO GIVE YOU ALIBI FOR MURDER, HUGS AND KISSES, MATSUMOTO.**

"I'm going to kill her!" Hitsugaya screamed.

"Alcohol, loose women, and murder threats." Edgeworth ticked off several items on his list. "This all seems in order so far."

"Captain Hitsugaya," Mia said, "as your defense attorney I must insist that you sit down right now and stop giving the prosecution the _wrong idea_."

"I'm being framed," Hitsugaya hissed. "It's lies. All lies. They hate me and they call me short behind my back."

"And do you often plan to murder them in revenge?" Edgeworth inquired smoothly.

"Only sometimes -- wait! Don't write that down . . ."

Mia sighed.


	6. Part VI

**Order In The Court: Part VI**

"So," Ichimaru Gin said. He strolled down the sunlit avenue with the pretty redhead, happily conscious that all the other captains were running around doing good deeds and hard work and sweating their asses off. "You've decided to lend a little hand?"

"Well now." She put a finger to her chin and pouted daintily. "An opportunity for power, wealth, and a really cruel vengeance on Mia Fey -- and her friends, too? How could I possibly say no?"

"Seems to me that you're a girl who's got her head screwed on right," Gin said approvingly.

"It's everyone else that's stupid," she said. "I'm not my sister's keeper, after all. But how did you manage to contact me?"

"There was a list," Gin said vaguely. "We saw to it that an extra name or two got added -- and then that it got left off before any of the other people saw it. So no, they ain't going to know you're here."

"You're such a smart man," she cooed. "I can see that we're going to work together perfectly."

Gin slid an arm around her delicately yielding shoulders, and brought his fingers up around her throat hard enough to be felt. "I should tell ya," he said as she choked, "that I know what happened to Valerie and to Terry. Mm? I know exactly how much loyalty means to you. So don't get no ideas. This is the last chance ya get for vengeance. Don't blow it."

"You talk as if you think I'd _betray_ you," she whispered softly.

"Snake knows viper," Gin said. "I think we understand each other, mm?"

"I'm sure we do," said Dahlia Hawthorne.


	7. Part VII

**Order In The Court: Part VII**

Mia got to the end of her pep talk to the assembled Defense Team. "And what do we do when the witnesses give us testimony?"

"Press them! Press them! Press them!" came the chant from Phoenix and Apollo (and Maya, Pearl, and Trucy, due to a spirit of united enthusiasm).

"My motto exactly," Kyouraku Shunsui said, drifting past in a haze of alcohol fumes. "Speaking of which, beautiful lady --"

"Sir," Ise Nanao said with tooth-grittingly weary patience, "Ukitake-taichou is waiting for you."

"He can wait," Kyouraku said, inclining towards Mia's bosom.

"With a bottle of wine."

"Till later, beautiful lady," Kyouraku said, sweeping a bow before vanishing at the speed of light.

"Well," Mia said, rearranging her hair. "Did he try that on Franziska von Karma?"

"Yes," Nanao said. "Excellent whip technique. The Shinigami Women's Association has booked a demonstration."

* * *

Over on the Prosecuting Team, von Karma was delivering a final address on how he expected a sentence within ten minutes, fifteen at the very most, that any failure was due to the malignant incompetence of the defense attorneys, and that if he had been allowed to handle this solo (as indeed he should have been) then Hitsugaya Toushirou would currently be begging for mercy from the condemned cell.

"Assuming he did it," Edgeworth said.

"Assuming that Herr Whitey did indeed do it," Klavier said.

"Assuming that the foolish fool is in fact guilty and is not wilfully obfuscating the evidence for some unknown but foolish reason," Franziska said.

"Assuming that the coffee doesn't stop coming," Godot said.

Von Karma snapped his fingers. The diagrammed pages on his presentation whiteboard fluttered. "Let us go out there and procure judgement. Now."

* * *

Yamamoto rapped on the bench with his staff. "Today we are here to find the criminal who murdered Aizen Sousuke, Captain of the Fifth Division. Currently accused is -- is --"

He peered.

"Where is Hitsugaya Toushirou?"

A hand poked above the parapet of the witness stand.

"Ah. Will someone please put a box in there for Hitsugaya Toushirou to stand on?"

Hitsugaya rose above the parapet, face twisted in a hideous frown that promised ice ages for the entire courtroom.

"Thank you. Currently accused is Hitsugaya Toushirou, Captain of the Tenth Division. The Prosecuting Team may present evidence. Courtroom procedures will be followed strictly. Anybody attempting to interrupt will be . . ." Yamamoto paused to consult the list of instructions he'd received from the Chamber of 46. "Suppressed by Second Division ninjas and then handed over to the Twelfth Division for experimentation."

Kurotsuchi Mayuri was the only one applauding.

* * *

"I don't remember that being part of the standard trial methodology," Apollo muttered to Phoenix.

"I don't remember it in our briefing either," Phoenix muttered back.

* * *

"I want my own ninjas," Franziska whispered to Edgeworth.

"They would be useful," Edgeworth agreed.

* * *

"Are you sure that giving Matsumoto so much alcohol is a good idea?" Ukitake murmured in Kyouraku's ear.

"If we're lucky she'll get drunk before they call on her to testify," Kyouraku murmured back.

"And if we're not lucky?"

"Then she'll testify."

"Here's some more wine."


	8. Part VIII

**Order In The Court: Part VIII**

"So," Apollo said gently, "you were always very attached to Captain Aizen." He didn't need to have the rest of the Defense team whispering at him to be careful with the poor thing. The girl was clearly on the edge of breaking down and crying her eyes out.

"Of course," Hinamori Momo sniffled. "He was so understanding, so helpful, guiding me and letting me work hard to prove myself . . ."

"Ach, fraulein," Klavier said, ignoring some ominous whip-cracking and finger-snapping from behind him, "don't blame yourself. It's clear that Aizen Sousuke was a good man. He wouldn't want to see you torturing yourself in this way."

"Let's go over the evidence again," Apollo said. "If you'd just repeat your statement . . ." He focused his senses into that state of hyperfunction where he'd be able to perceive any odd behaviour on her part. She might know something without realising that she knew it.

"Well," Hinamori said, eyes big and fragile, "I went to visit Aizen-taichou that night, as I was worried by some of the things which had been going on."

"What things?" Apollo asked.

"Oh, the intruders, and Abarai Renji acting oddly, and all the fighting."

Apollo nodded. "Please go on." To one side, he could see Phoenix scribbling _interview Abarai Renji_.

"So when I went to see Aizen-taichou," Hinamori quavered, "he was writing something at his desk. He said that I could sit and wait until he'd finished. I fell asleep, and when I woke up I was late for a meeting, so I hurried to get there, and I saw -- I saw -- Aizen-taichou pinned to the wall by his own zanpakutou!"

She started sniffling again.

"At what time did you fall asleep?" Apollo asked. "And when did you wake up?"

Hinamori frowned. "I don't remember exactly what time it was. I remember that it was late when I got there, already past eleven o'clock. I woke up at ten to nine. The alarm clock was going off. Aizen-taichou must have set it before he went out."

Both Mia and Phoenix scribbled something down.

"And was Captain Aizen still working when you went to sleep?"

Hinamori nodded. Her bottom lip wobbled. "He was always so devoted, so hard-working, so sincere . . ."

Apollo leaned forward, hands grasping the rail of his podium. "I think there's more to it than that, vice-captain."

Her lip wobbled more. Yes! The tell-tale sign of emotional disturbance. "I -- I --"

"I think there's something you aren't telling us," Apollo pushed. "I think that you're struggling to repress something. What are you holding back, vice-captain? What aren't you saying?"

Hinamori quailed before his piercing glare. "I --"

Apollo slapped both hands down. "Tell us!"

"I'm going to kill whoever did it!" she screamed, pulling out her sword and flailing it round her head. Balls of fire shot here, there, and everywhere, and would have hit Apollo if Trucy hadn't jumped on top of him and knocked him down. "I'm going to find them and kill them and gut them and fry them and roast them and tear their arms off and hit them with the soggy ends and make them pay for killing Aizen-taichou! They're going to pay! I will avenge Aizen-taichou! There will be blood! And fire! And lots of blood! And lots of fire! And --"

She was carried off, still screaming, by a couple of the other vice-captains.

Apollo very nervously poked his head up again and spat out some dust. "The witness has demonstrated clear emotional involvement," he said hopefully.

"Objection!" Klavier snapped. He swung a hand back to gesture dramatically. "How can you be so harsh about the poor fraulein's grief? And what has it got to do with the bare facts of her testimony?"

"Hold it!" Apollo snarled. "All that the testimony establishes is that Captain Aizen left his room at a point after eleven o'clock and before ten to nine! It doesn't in any way incriminate the defendant!"

Klavier leaned forward, smirking in a way that drew a number of feminine sighs from the audience. "That, Herr Forehead, remains to be seen."

Yamamoto rapped his staff on the bench. "Next witness!"


	9. Part IX

**Order In The Court: Part IX**

Godot raised his coffee mug. Not only did it waft the lovely aroma of coffee sweetly to his nostrils, but it also helped block out the rampant alcohol fumes coming from the blonde beauty in the witness box.

"Perhaps if we can go through it again?" he suggested.

Matsumoto Rangiku leaned forward, giving the whole courtroom an even more complete than usual view of her decolletage. "I know that Hitsugaya-taichou's just trying to protect my reputation, so of course he won't admit to it, but we were in bed together on the night in question. I was almost late getting to the meeting as it was. So it's totally impossible that he could have had anything to do with Aizen-taichou being murdered."

"He couldn't have crept out while you were asleep?" Mia asked.

"We didn't sleep," Matsumoto said, with a bump, jiggle, and wink.

"Madam," Godot said. "I appreciate that we are trying to shield your captain. But we have testimony from another witness that they spent the night with you, and they don't mention Captain Hitsugaya being in the bed as well."

Matsumoto blinked. She counted on her fingers. "Surely not," she said unconvincingly. "They've got to be wrong."

Godot leaned forward menacingly. "Then, madam, can you explain the fact that **GIN LUVS RANGIKU** is handwritten in ink on your lower belly?"

"Noooooooooooooooooooo!" Rangiku screamed, tossing her hair, her breasts, and her dignity out of the window.

* * *

Ichimaru Gin was in the witness box.

"I put it to you," Mia said, "that you had a quarrel with Captain Aizen on the day in question. And while your testimony about Matsumoto may destroy Captain Hitsugaya's alibi, it also gives _you_ an alibi for the date in question! Can you prove that you wrote **GIN LUVS RANGIKU** on that specific occasion?"

"Actually, I can," Gin said. He smirked. "I dated it."

Mia opened her mouth.

She shut it again.

"Do you normally date that sort of thing?" she finally asked.

"Objection!" Godot snapped. "My kitten --"

The glare froze his coffee mid-sip.

"-- Miss Fey, that is, is bringing in matters which have nothing to do with the matter in hand. The date has been established by examining the belly in question --"

"_Who_ examined it?" Mia enquired coldly.

"Franziska von Karma," Godot said hastily. "And since it was written in water-soluble ink --"

"Scrubbing it off's half the fun," Gin observed.

"-- this establishes clearly that Matsumoto Rangiku spent the night with Ichimaru Gin, thus voiding any alibi she attempted to provide for Captain Hitsugaya," Godot overrode him loudly.

"But would Captain Ichimaru like to explain his earlier argument with Captain Aizen?" Mia asked.

"Objection!" Godot said. "This is not relevant to the case at the moment. As I'm sure Your Honour will agree," he remarked in Yamamoto's direction.

"Aww, I don't mind telling," Gin said. "It was those intruders, the ones that are still running round out there. I figured it was enough to give them a slap on the hand and throw them out. I guess Aizen disagreed, and seeing as he was my old Captain and all, he was always kind of hard on me when I made a mistake. Guess it's like that with old superiors, mm?"

Most of the prosecution and defense attorneys nodded.

"Speaking of which," Mia said, "has there been any word on these armed and dangerous intruders, Your Honour?"

Yamamoto checked one of the papers on his desk. "Three have been taken prisoner, and two are still at liberty. However, this court does not expect them to be a serious threat. Eleventh Division is in hot pursuit." He cleared his throat. "If the prosecution and defense have both finished cross-examining this witness?"

Godot and Mia both nodded.

"Very well. I call Hitsugaya Toushirou to the stand."


	10. Part X

**Order In The Court: Part X**

"So," Edgeworth said, with what Phoenix recognised as his most effective calm-the-witness-before-striking-like-a-king-cobra mannerisms. "You're the youngest captain of the Gotei 13. In fact, some people go so far as to call you a boy genius."

Hitsugaya bristled. "I can't help what people call me," he snapped. "But yes. I am currently the youngest captain in the Gotei 13."

Edgeworth consulted some notes that Phoenix was fairly certain he didn't need. "Hinamori Momo was a childhood friend of yours, though since you became a captain, you and she have drifted apart a little."

"We were busy," Hitsugaya said coldly. "Both of us had our respective duties to take care of."

"And you didn't feel jealous."

"No."

"Or resentful."

"Of course not."

"And you didn't have late-night drunken rages where you vowed to kill the captain who'd taken her from you."

"Of course not!" Hitsugaya shouted, to a backdrop of fascinated whispers from the crowd.

"And you didn't engage in dubious sexual practices with a wide variety of partners."

Hitsugaya made a sound like a dying steam kettle, his cheeks turning violently scarlet.

"Or attempt to seize ultimate power in order to control Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, Earth, and all points between, investigating . . ." Edgeworth checked his papers again. "The Bounto experiments, the Vizard experiments, the Kidou Cannon, the Mod Souls, the Execution Scaffold, and a number of other cases which I have been forbidden to mention by order of the Judge."

"Where did you get that information?" Kurotsuchi Mayuri screamed from the crowd. "That is under seal! My seal! Nobody can access it!"

"They didn't dare keep it from a representative of the court," von Karma said, rearing up like Leviathan. "Your assistants were -- cooperative. Eventually."

Mayuri subsided, hissing.

"Objection!" Phoenix declared. "While the prosecution may enjoy flinging these accusations about possible motive, he has yet to show a single piece of _proof_ that the accused murdered Captain Aizen!"

Edgeworth held up the letter. "We have here a statement from Captain Aizen himself that he was going to meet Hitsugaya Toushirou on the night of the murder. He was wise enough to leave this behind in case something went wrong."

The entire defense team flinched.

"Handwriting!" Phoenix said desperately. "It could be forged!"

Edgeworth shook his head. "The handwriting has been identified as Aizen's by Hinamori Momo, and by several other witnesses. We have also matched the ink with the inkstone on Aizen's desk, and the paper with the paper there too. It is not possible for this document to be a forgery."

"He could have been forced to write it under coercion!"

Edgeworth shook his head gently. "Really now. Keep your hypotheses within the limits of the possible, Wright."

"Then he was mistaken," Phoenix said with more certainty than he felt. "Are you saying that this young man, this boy --"

"Excuse _me_," Hitsugaya said, "but I would like to point out that --"

"Objection!" Phoenix overrode him. "You're trying to make it look as if this infant, scarcely out of primary school --"

A block of ice solidified round him. Hitsugaya put his zanpakutou back in its sheath with a satisfied air.

Yamamoto hammered on his desk. "The accused will refrain from freezing his defense attorney!"

"Allow me," said Mia Fey, stepping forward. "Someone thaw Phoenix out. Now, Captain Hitsugaya, surely you are not suggesting that you are a devious and machiavellian plotter, capable of utter depravity and fiendish schemes in order to seize power and indulge your unwholesome lusts?"

Hitsugaya thought about that. "Well, um, no. Not as such . . ."

"Thank you." Mia turned back to face Edgeworth. "I think that makes the situation quite clear, don't you?"

"Mere testimony," Edgeworth sneered. "As opposed to physical evidence."

"Indeed," Mia said. She smiled. "Let's discuss the physical evidence, shall we?"


	11. Part XI

**Order In The Court: Part XI**

"Let us consider the scene of the crime," Mia said. "Has it occurred to anyone here that something might be missing?"

"Such as the criminal?" Edgeworth suggested. There was a snigger from the crowd.

"More than that," Mia said. "Your Honour, we have photographic records and witnesses who can all agree on one thing in particular that was not present at the crime scene."

"And that is?" Yamamoto asked.

Mia gestured behind her at the iceberg formerly known as Phoenix Wright, currently being thawed. "Ice. Or water. We have just been given a demonstration of Captain Hitsugaya's zanpakutou. Can anyone explain why, during a life-and-death struggle, _not a single fragment of ice or drop of water was left behind_?"

The crowd buzzed.

Edgeworth sniffed. "Clearly the ice thawed and the water evaporated. If the murder took place early in the night, there would be enough time before morning for all traces to be gone."

Mia flourished a pictorial rendition (with extra red ink) of the stabbed Aizen hanging from the wall. "But in that case, why does the bloodstain show no trace of being washed away or otherwise affected by water splashes?"

"Possibly Captain Hitsugaya seized Captain Aizen's sword and impaled him without needing to draw his own blade?" Edgeworth suggested.

Mia pointed at Hitsugaya, still standing forlornly in the witness stand. "I call upon the Judge -- and the prosecutor -- to imagine Captain Hitsugaya here seizing the blade of an experienced Captain and known kidou expert, who just happened to be several times his own size, and impaling him halfway up the side of a very high building, without using any sort of offensive powers or otherwise using his own zanpakutou."

Hitsugaya bit down on what would probably have been a very strongly worded comment, and just glared.

"Ah," Edgeworth said, resuming his smug facade. "We also examined the scene of the crime. And our forensics expert has determined --"

"After making me climb the ladder and spray the whole area with Luminol with me having vertigo attacks all the time," Apollo murmured to Trucy.

"-- that there was more blood in the area than was physically possible!" Edgeworth concluded.

"Excuse me?" Yamamoto said. "Are you trying to say that Aizen bled too much?"

Edgeworth posed dramatically. "More than that, Your Honour. There was more blood present than could come from the body of a single human. Captain Aizen was not murdered there. The scene was faked!"

"But why would anyone do such a thing?" Yamamoto asked.

"As yet, Your Honour, we have no evidence. But I think this proves that the lack of ice fails to establish Captain Hitsugaya's innocence!"

"However," Mia pointed out, "it doesn't prove his guilt, either. All it proves is that he was killed elsewhere and the body was moved. Why should Captain Hitsugaya have done that?"

"My learned colleague forgets," Edgeworth said, "that there are rumoured intruders in Seireitai at the moment. What could be easier than to throw the blame on them? Indeed, if it hadn't been for Captain Aizen's letter, they would have been assumed to be guilty in the first place!"

Maya tugged at Mia's jacket. "So, wait, sis," she whispered. "These intruders were wandering round that night?"

Mia nodded. "And -- oh, I see!" She turned back to the court. "Your Honour, I understand that several of the intruders are currently in custody."

Yamamoto nodded. "How does this relate to the case, Miss Fey?"

Mia tossed her hair back elegantly. "Like this, Your Honour. We've all been regretting the lack of witnesses. But these intruders were at large that night. Has anyone thought to question them about what _they_ may have seen?"

"Objection!" Edgeworth shouted. "There is no reason to assume that they may have any connection whatsoever with the case!"

"Oh?" Mia inquired. "Then is it pure coincidence that Captain Aizen was murdered on the very night that they arrived here?"

Yamamoto nodded, and hammered on his desk. "There will be a thirty minute recess for the prisoners to be summoned and questioned. Court will then resume!"


	12. Part XII

**Order In The Court: Part XII**

"Name and occupation," Edgeworth demanded.

"Ishida Uryuu," the young man in the dock stated. "Quincy."

Edgeworth checked his documents. No, it didn't say anywhere what a 'Quincy' was. He was going to have some very stern words with Gumshoe later. "So, Ishida. We're here to discuss what happened on the night of Captain Aizen's murder . . . why are you looking at me like that?"

Ishida adjusted his glasses. They glinted. "Excuse me. I couldn't help noticing your cravat."

Edgeworth's fingers twitched. "What about my cravat?"

"Well," Ishida said blandly, "I am an expert in these matters, and --"

"And?!"

"And I couldn't help noticing that your cravat was _sewn into position_. Not tied."

Edgeworth flinched back against the wall, face drawn in a skull-like rictus of horror.

"Not tied?" Von Karma's voice achieved the low vibration of a great white whale. Glassware shook and cracked. Kyouraku Shunsui had to save the contents of his bottle of wine by drinking it on the spot. "My protege, my student, wears a _ready-sewn cravat_? Franziska! Your whip!"

"There will be a brief recess while the prosecution arranges its neckwear," Yamamoto hastily declared.

* * *

"So, you didn't see anything?" Godot asked.

"No," Chad said. "But --"

"But?"

Everyone leaned forward.

"Could I have some of that coffee, please?"

* * *

"Yeah," Ganju said. "I would like it put on record that I was _brutally assaulted_ outside the Tower of Penitence by the pansy-ass shinigami captain sitting over there. The one with the curlers in his hair and the fluffy cherry blossom thing. I was just taking a nice healthy walk for the sake of my health --"

"Hold it!" Klavier pointed out. "We have depositions from the shinigami guards that you drugged them or knocked them unconscious."

"Hey," Ganju said, "I'm not responsible for what they get up to in their spare time. It's like my big sister always said, Seireitai's full of drug abusers. And guys who wear curlers in their hair," he said, with another glare at Byakuya.

"So why were you near the Tower of Penitence?" Apollo asked.

Ganju shifted his weight. "Well, see, Sis had told me how there was this person there who had something to do with our family."

"And are you trying to deny that you were attempting to rescue this person?" Klavier pounced.

Ganju snorted. "Look. That 'person' was the shinigami who killed my brother. You really figure that I'd be involved in a rescue mission with Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends, getting ourselves fired into Seireitai in a cannonball, fighting our way to the Tower of Penitence and all that, just in order to rescue Kuchiki Rukia?"

Apollo slumped forward and settled his head in his hands.

"The prosecution thinks there's very little that they need to add to that," Klavier said.

"Oh shit," Ganju said.

* * *

"But where," Apollo said, making a defiant comeback, "is this mysterious and sinister Kurosaki Ichigo? After confronting Captain Kuchiki in front of the Tower of Penitence," he made a mental note to find out why the Captain had the same family name as that prisoner, "he apparently fled the scene. He has no alibi for the night in question. He is armed and dangerous. He has a grudge against the authorities. We have sketches of him, supplied by Captain Kuchiki and Captain Ukitake . . ." He paused, and held up the one that _didn't_ look like a rabbit with orange hair. "We have a motive. But we don't have the culprit."

"Herr Forehead," Klavier said patronisingly, "your attempts to incriminate this Kurosaki are useless. Merely because he was carried off by an expert ninja who has apparently sworn to heal him and train him does not necessarily mean that he is responsible for Captain Aizen's murder! Can you provide any evidence -- any genuine evidence -- which links the two of them?"

Apollo folded his arms. "I can. The execution of Kuchiki Rukia. In that letter which you have been showing to the court, Captain Aizen says that he believes that her execution is all a trick to gain control of the, the --"

"Soukyokou," Trucy prompted him.

"The execution scaffold thing!" Apollo said triumphantly. "Kurosaki Ichigo breaks in to stop it. Captain Aizen was investigating it." He pointed a trembling finger. "That letter makes it clear that the two of them are indeed linked! And since the letter says that Captain Aizen intended to meet Captain Hitsugaya in front of the East Wall, where his body was found, but since we have already established that he was killed elsewhere and his body was moved there -- this, again, suggests that it was someone else who killed him, and who was attempting to frame Captain Hitsugaya!"

He panted for breath.

"You need to do something about your sentence construction," Phoenix muttered. "Pause more and hammer on the desk."

Yamamoto nodded solemnly. "The court agrees that Kurosaki Ichigo must be found. There will be a pause for further investigation. The trial resumes tomorrow!"


	13. Part XIII

**Order In The Court: Part XIII**

"Yes, all right," Ichigo said. "You've caught me. I admit it. I don't know how you found me, and I don't know why you found me, and I don't see why the hell you're looking for me, and I don't know anything about this stupid trial in the first place, but if you want me to come along with you, will you _please turn your backs so that I can get out of this damn pool and put some clothes on_."

Franziska von Karma smugly brandished a tracking device. "It was simplicity to put a bug on the foolish fool of a vice-captain who was sneaking out to join you here for training."

"That makes two of us who'd like you to turn your backs while we get out of the pool," Renji said. "Please?"

"Will you keep an eye on these fools, brother?" Franziska asked Edgeworth.

"Certainly," Edgeworth said. "It seems that Prosecutor Godot is . . . distracted."

Godot was busy tickling the stomach of the black cat who was innocently rolling on her back with her feet in the air. "Who's a cute little kitty then? Who's a cute itsy bitty little wild untamed filly of a kitty that's going to make some big tomcat very happy some day?"

Ichigo and Renji exchanged glances.

Franziska sniffed and turned her back.


	14. Part XIV

**Order In The Court: Part XIV**

The defense team surrounded Abarai Renji.

"Would you like some tea?" Maya asked. "And where did you get those cool tattoos? You look so stylish with them!"

"No, Maya," Phoenix said sternly. "You can't."

"Can't give him tea?"

"Can't have tattoos."

"Thank you, Phoenix," Mia said, patting him on the shoulder, "for saying it before I could. And don't sulk, Maya. Now. Your name is Abarai Renji, and you are vice-captain of the Sixth Division?"

"You got it." Renji glowered. "And I don't know why you lot are all asking me questions. It's not like I've done anything wrong."

"Ah . . . you did head off to secretly do bankai training with a known intruder under suspicious circumstances," Apollo said.

"Nothing about that in regulations," Renji said quickly. "Just check."

"And you did previously go off-duty without permission -"

"Taking accumulated flexitime, page seventy-nine, subsection six."

"- and get into a fight with the intruders rather than giving the alarm -"

"Pre-emptive offensive stance, page one hundred and fifty-nine, footnote eight."

"- and, according to your captain, 'looked at him funny'."

Renji twitched. "Who, me?" he said unconvincingly.

Phoenix fondled his Magatama. (He hoped Maya never asked for it back. It was far too useful.) Yes, he could see the unmistakeable dark chains of Psyche-Locks firmly meshed around Renji's body in a spiritual sort of way.

"I think there's something that makes you nervous about your captain," he hazarded.

Renji twitched again. "Nope," he said. "Not a thing. Absolutely nothing. Me and the captain, we've got this perfect understanding thing going on. Total empathy. Absolute loyalty and admiration. Really."

"I don't think so," Phoenix said. "In fact, I think it's quite the opposite."

"Let's see you prove it," Renji challenged. "Show me one point on which the Captain and I might have disagreed."

Phoenix hunted through the pile of evidence on the table. "Here!" he said, brandishing . . . "Oh, wait, that's one of Godot's coffee mugs. Just a moment. Here! Look at this set of photographs of Captain Kuchiki's sister in a bikini that we found in your desk drawers!"

"Give me those!" Renji screamed. One of the Psyche-Locks cracked.

"I don't think so," Phoenix said, tossing them across the room to Apollo. "And I think there's more than that."

"So we had a few issues about his sister," Renji snarled. "That's no reason to assume anything more than that."

"And this?" Phoenix enquired, producing the **Arrest Order for Kuchiki Rukia, signed by Kuchiki Byakuya**.

Another lock snapped. Renji flinched. "A Captain's gotta do what a Captain's gotta do," he said feebly.

"And the fact that you're constantly saying that you're going to challenge Captain Kuchiki as soon as you're strong enough?"

"Who says that?" Renji demanded.

"Pretty much everyone," Maya chimed in. "In fact, whenever we mentioned you, they all said, oh yes, he keeps on swearing he's going to challenge Captain Kuchiki as soon as he's strong enough, and then he has another drink, and then he falls over."

"Oh." Another lock went ker-ping. "But - but - all of this is just hearsay and rumours and circumstantial evidence! Show me one thing that proves I actually have really conflicted feelings about my Captain and not the normal wanting to kick his ass! Everyone wants to kick his ass! Just ask them!"

Phoenix gravely pulled out a folder. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this."

"Bah!" Renji tossed his hair. "Nothing you have in there can possibly affect me!"

"Oh?" Phoenix slid the folder open slowly. "Not even . . ." He dramatically flashed the pictures. "A set of nude drawings of Captain Kuchiki found under your pillow?"

"_Nooooooooooooooo!_" Renji wailed, collapsing as the last Psyche-Lock splintered.

"Damn," Phoenix muttered. "I didn't even get to use his personal diary with all the poetry in it."

"Pass me those drawings, Nick," Maya said distractedly. "I want to check the evidence some more."


	15. Part XV

**Order In The Court: Part XV**

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Ichigo said. "We just thought we'd come and get Rukia back, since she obviously wasn't wanted here -- I mean, what is this? Death penalty? Just because she was fighting Hollows and got jumped by one and had to give me some of her powers to help, and it wasn't _her_ fault they got stuck, and if she hadn't done it then all my family would have been killed too, and that includes my two younger sisters, and are you telling me that it's a shinigami's duty to let innocent kids get killed?"

Von Karma snorted. "The witness will refrain from launching diatribes at the Court! He is here to give his testimony on one simple matter -- was he involved in the death of Aizen Sousuke, or not?"

"Who's Aizen Sousuke?" Ichigo asked blankly.

Apollo braced himself. He had a sneaking suspicion that Mia and Phoenix encouraging him to take this witness wasn't so much based on 'you've never faced von Karma before, he won't know how to handle you' as 'we don't want to face von Karma again'. "While wandering round Seireitai by night, did you observe anything unusual?"

"Well, we were hiding in the sewers," Ichigo said. "I was asleep for most of the time after fighting Renji."

"But could you go up to the surface?"

"I suppose I could have," Ichigo said. "But I was asleep so I didn't."

Apollo felt his hyper-perceptivity turn itself on. His eyes narrowed. He leaned forward. He drank in every detail of Ichigo's muscular body. "You slept all night," he said.

"Of course I did!" Ichigo snapped. His hand stroked at a fold of his clothing. "Why shouldn't I have been?"

"You're twitchy for someone who was sleeping all night," Apollo said.

"I've been busy since then!" Ichigo protested. "I've been in fights and I've been training and I don't see why you're questioning _me_." His hand brushed his clothing again at his last word.

"Oh?" Apollo asked. "Is there someone else we should be asking?"

"Objection!" Von Karma snapped his fingers. Nervous people in the front row quailed. Kira Izuru looked as if he was about to faint. "This line of reasoning is a total farce! If there is a person who we should be looking to for answers, that is Hitsugaya Toushirou! The defense is --"

"Hold it!" Apollo shouted, calling on the full power of his Chords of Steel.

"The defense has a throat problem?" Yamamoto inquired.

"No, Your Honour. I would just like to ask Kurosaki Ichigo here a couple more questions."

"Assuming that they are relevant, I will permit it," Yamamoto said. "Otherwise I will need to penalise the defense team."

Apollo swallowed. "Right. Ah, Kurosaki Ichigo . . . I'd like to talk a little more about the person who we _should_ be asking about that night."

Ichigo tried looking to right and left. It didn't help. He squared his shoulders. "No idea what you're talking about," he said.

"I think you do," Apollo said. "I think it has something to do with the way that you keep on touching whatever it is you've got hidden in your clothing."

Ichigo pulled his hand away as if it was red-hot. "You're imagining things."

"And I think you're worried about it too," Apollo went on, observing the telltale beads of sweat on Ichigo's brow, the telltale grasping of the desk, the telltale attempts to look anywhere else except at him. "I think you need to tell us before it's too late -- excuse me, did you know your eyes are turning yellow . . ."

"Too late!" the raving masked lunatic in the witness stand screamed. "Now you will all pay! Now I rule! Now I'll fight the way this idiot never fights! Now . . ."

Ichigo pulled the clinging mask off his face. "Um," he said in the resounding silence. "I have this _tiny little problem_ when I get under stress that is totally unrelated to the situation and I hope that you won't look at it the wrong way."

Von Karma coughed. "The prosecution calls for a brief recess to examine the possibility of any witnesses having seen a masked split-personality murderer in the vicinity during the night in question."

"The defense supports this," Apollo agreed quickly. Another victory for the Apollo Justice ability to Perceive the Truth! . . . even if it had meant Trucy jumping on top of him again while the maniac in the witness stand flailed around. Sometimes he wished that he could get dramatic emotional revelations without death threats, courtroom-wide dramatics, and property damage.

"Purely for the sake of full and detailed evidence," von Karma added. "We do not in any way suggest that this somehow clears Hitsugaya Toushirou from the charges against him. We merely wish to investigate all possible evidence."

Ichigo raised a hand. "Where do I get a defense attorney, please?"


	16. Part XVI

**Order In The Court: Part XVI**

It was a high-level meeting between the prosecution and defense team representatives, in order to question a potential witness before the actual court testimony.

Phoenix pointed a finger at the cat. "Are you or are you not a ninja in disguise?"

"Mew," said the cat.

Edgeworth sighed deeply. "Wright, I've seen you question parrots. I've even seen you get answers from parrots. But in this case, I think you may be taking it a little too far."

"It's perfectly logical," Phoenix said stubbornly. "We've had evidence that Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends were with a talking cat. We've got Captain Kuchiki's testimony that 'the brat was rescued by the demon cat fiend woman Shihouin Yoruichi who was banished a hundred years ago and I _am_ faster than her, whatever she says'."

"Nevertheless, this is a _cat_. A cat which has spent the last half hour being given cream by Prosecutor Godot and having him rub her behind the ears. You know," Edgeworth said, diverted, "I never knew he was a cat person."

Phoenix shuddered. "Don't ask."

"But." Edgeworth drew himself up and straightened his lapels. "We are wasting our time here examining this cat when we could be looking for other witnesses or examining the scene of the crime."

"Hold it!" Phoenix gestured dramatically with a finger. "I don't think we can leave before we've gone through this potential evidence! It could be the vital clue that turns the case around! It could --"

"Oh, just hurry up and kiss him," the cat said.

Dead silence.

"Look," the cat said, "I've been watching the two of you for the last half hour. I've seen cases like this before. You're obviously deeply in love and the unfulfilled sexual tension is simply staggering. Just admit it. You're made for each other. Even the rest of your teams think so. Give in to it. Take him in your arms and --"

"Is that cat talking?" Phoenix asked desperately.

"Definitely not," Edgeworth said firmly. "Not under any circumstances whatever. I have never heard a cat talk less."

"Mew," the cat said.


	17. Part XVII

**Order In The Court: Part XVII**

"I just wanted to testify that Kurosaki Ichigo is a really, really good person," the orange-haired young woman said, gazing deeply into Apollo's eyes, "and you should defend him."

"Yeah," the nightmare ogre looming behind her rumbled. Oh wait, that wasn't a nightmare ogre. That was Captain Zaraki of the Eleventh Division. "You need to get him out of there so I can kick his ass."

"Need?" Apollo said, trying to sound manly and firm.

"Think of it," Zaraki growled, "as being good for your health."

"Right," Apollo squeaked. "But you see, I'm currently defending Captain Hitsugaya, and I'm not sure that --"

"Don't worry!" Trucy said perkily. "We'll just discover the truth, and when both of them are proved innocent, that'll settle everything."

"But what if Kurosaki Ichigo _isn't_ innocent?" Apollo asked. "Um -- I don't think I know your name, miss --"

"Inoue! Inoue Orihime." She gave him a nice little bow. "I'm a friend of Kurosaki Ichigo from Earth and I eek --"

Zaraki put his hand over her mouth. "She's a member of my Division," he informed Apollo, "who fought her way up the ranks. The traditional way." He grinned. His open mouth showed a lot of broken teeth. Fangs, really.

"Right," Apollo said quickly. "Shinigami. Absolutely. No question of that. So, um, can Orihime here, from her totally unbiased shinigami perspective, actually give me any definite evidence about Kurosaki Ichigo and this split personality mask problem he seems to have?"

Orihime put her finger to her lips thoughtfully. Zaraki removed his hand. "Um. Well, he did go through some really intense training with this person called Urahara who has this shop back at home, but he didn't talk about it much. And I've never actually _seen_ him with a mask on or with a split personality. He's more of a prince. A noble, heroic, valiant prince. My six Shun Shun Rikka say so."

"Your Shun Shun Rikka?" Apollo enquired.

"They're the six fairies who live in my hairpins!"

"Control yourself, Polly!" Trucy whispered urgently. "So she's got six fairies living in her hairpins. We've seen stranger stuff than that!"

Apollo restrained himself, with an effort, from asking _like when and where and how?_ and focused on Orihime. "So when was the last time you saw Kurosaki Ichigo?"

"It was when we were getting into Seireitai," Orihime said. "We'd been shot over the walls in a cannonball and then we started to drift apart while we were floating in the air, and Ishida and I were hanging onto each other, and we were all trying to reach for each others' hands, just like Adam and God in that picture on the chapel ceiling by Michelangelo, and then he went whizzing off in the other direction! And then later he ran into Captain Zaraki here --"

"Best fight I've had in _years_," Zaraki growled happily.

"-- but I wasn't with him at the time, I was with Ishida, and we were sneaking round in disguise, because we beat up two shinigami and took their clothing! But we didn't leave them naked. I wouldn't do a thing like that."

"I'm sure you wouldn't," Apollo agreed weakly.

"And then we ran into the Captain of Twelfth Division who was evil, because he blew up his own men as bombs! And he was going to turn me into an experimental subject, but Ishida stayed behind to fight him while Maki from Eleventh Division brought me to Captain Zaraki here! Ishida is all right, isn't he?"

"He is," Trucy said. "He's in the holding area and I'm sure that they'd let you go and see him if you wanted to."

"Oh, good!" Orihime clasped her hands. "So there you are. And you'll defend Kurosaki, won't you?"

"I, um, that is --"

Zaraki leaned down. His hair was even more spiked than Apollo's could hope to be in its wildest dreams. "Won't. You."

"we'lltakeitunderadvisement," Apollo squeaked.

"Good." Zaraki turned round. "C'mon, woman. We can't leave Yachiru to play with that pile of evidence all day."


	18. Part XVIII

**Order In The Court: Part XVIII**

The defense team was having a crisis meeting.

"So," Phoenix said. "Our position is that Hitsugaya is innocent."

"He's our client," Mia said.

"Right," Apollo agreed. "But can we also have the position that Kurosaki Ichigo is innocent? Please?"

"I don't know," Phoenix said. "We have three possibilities. Either he's totally innocent, or he's innocent but his split personality is actually a murderer, or he's guilty and his split personality's a murderer."

"Couldn't he just be a murderer?" Maya asked.

"He didn't strike me that way," Phoenix said. "The bit where he was totally ignorant about who the victim was seemed very convincing to me."

"But what if it was pure accident?" Trucy suggested. "He's creeping through the city at night, he meets a shinigami captain, the two of them fight . . ."

Apollo shook his head. "It wouldn't work. That might explain a death, but it wouldn't explain moving the corpse, faking the crime scene, and using the victim's own sword to pin him to the wall."

"Wait a moment." Mia raised a finger. "I think you've just said something very important there, Apollo."

"Oh." Apollo preened. "Which bit?"

"Where you suggested that the person responsible killed Captain Aizen first, and _then_ used his own sword to pin him to the wall. Now why do that?"

"To disguise the form of the murder wound!" Phoenix said. "Of course! The murderer must have thought that his own blade left too distinctive a wound, so he used Captain Aizen's own sword to conceal it!"

"That would explain the moving the body, too!" Apollo agreed. "To make it look as if the stab through the chest was the only blow, and a decisive one!"

"Okay. We need to have the body checked again to see if there are any traces of other blows that might have been ignored because of Captain Aizen's own sword." Mia made a note. "We also need a list of what everyone's weapons look like. What does Kurosaki Ichigo's blade look like, by the way?"

Phoenix checked the court record. "Apparently it's a very distinctive large wide blade," he said gloomily.

"Another question," Apollo said. "The blood."

"Oh oh oh!" Trucy bounced up and down. "I know this one! Where did the murderer get all the blood if he did fake the crime scene?"

"That would have to be the medical division or the scientific division, wouldn't it?" Phoenix said. "Who else would have access to that much blood? Unless someone can produce it somehow."

"Good point," Mia said. "Phoenix, check and see if anyone round here has incredible blood-producing powers."

"Why me?" Phoenix muttered.

"Because you thought of it. And bear in mind that they may be lying."

Phoenix sighed.

Pearl tugged at Phoenix's sleeve.

"Yes, Pearls?" he asked. "What is it?"

She looked up at him with big trusting eyes. "That nice captain with the white hair says you should call Kuchiki Rukia as a witness."

Phoenix frowned. His mind brought up the eternally smirking Ichimaru Gin. "Are you sure?"

"Nonono," Pearl said. "The _nice_ captain with the white hair. It's long. And he's got lots of candy. I don't think that other one's a very nice man."

"I think I agree with you," Phoenix muttered. "But why call Kuchiki Rukia?"

Mia shrugged. "Why not? Maybe it'll bring out some useful reactions."

"This is all staged," Trucy said firmly. "I know a magician's trick when I see one. All we have to do is find out what the trick is, and we'll know who the magician has to have been."

"And then I have to explain it in court?" Apollo said gloomily.

"But you're so good at it," Trucy said.


	19. Part XIX

**Order In The Court: Part XIX**

"Excuse me," Tousen said.

"Yes?" von Karma grunted.

"I believe I have a witness concerning the night of the murder."

Von Karma looked to right and left. No sign of lurking defense attorneys whose sole claim to intelligence was a bitter and moronic twisted low cunning that occasionally found its mark in the flesh of his weak proteges. "Tell me more," he said.

"She's very shy." Tousen shrugged. "An Academy student. She was out of bounds against the rules, which is why she didn't come forward at first. However, her natural inclination to justice has made her realise that she shouldn't conceal evidence, and she is willing to testify. But she's very fragile. A timid, fainting flower."

"I will treat her gently," von Karma rumbled, sharklike. "Have no fear. But you are sure she speaks the truth?"

Tousen nodded. "But I'm afraid that some of your own team may be collaborating with the defense. I wouldn't want to teach you your trade, but --"

Von Karma nodded decisively. "I will deal with her privately and bring her forward as a surprise witness. The defense will have no warning."

* * *

The defense had no warning. Nor did most of the prosecution. The first thing they knew about it was Dahlia Hawthorne standing in the witness box in all her delicate, innocent, sweetly prettily poisoned beauty, and swearing with hand on heart that she saw Kurosaki Ichigo and Hitsugaya Toushirou collaborating to murder Captain Aizen.

Yamamoto nearly broke a hole in his desk while hammering on it and calling for silence.

* * *

"You know something of this woman?" von Karma demanded of his team.

"She's a murderess," Edgeworth said.

"And a liar," Godot added.

"And she indulges in needlessly complicated plots," Franziska added.

Klavier shrugged. "Never met her. But is she telling the truth?"

Von Karma frowned. "We have seen that these shinigami employ dubious tools. Look at some of the Captains. It is not impossible that she may have joined their Academy after her death. The fact that she is a proven thief, liar, and murderer does not _in itself_ disqualify her testimony. Klavier Gavin!"

"Yes?"

"You are the one who has no experience with her. You are impartial. Question her. Question her well. Wring the truth from her. But if she is telling the truth, then crush the defense! Crush them utterly!"

"Achtung, baby," Klavier said. "I'll take the stage."

* * *

"We can't all question her," Mia said. "Much as I'd like to. We must preserve the proper decorum. The proper impartiality. The proper --"

"You're crushing that coffee mug," Phoenix pointed out nervously.

"Can't we steal von Karma's taser and zap her and then frame him for it?" Maya asked.

"Maya!" Phoenix exclaimed. "That's a highly criminal action. Besides, I don't think it would work."

"Oh well," Maya shrugged. "But she's an evil mean nasty cruel lying horrible person. Doesn't this just prove that someone's trying to frame Hitsugaya and Kurosaki?"

"It does," Apollo said. "Which means that if we can find out who's behind _her_ then we can find out who wants them framed."

"Right," Trucy said. "Polly's right. The longer she's in court, the longer you can all question her and press her and get her to slip up."

Mia nodded firmly. She put down the twisted remains of the coffee mug. "We'll take it in turns to grill her. She'll spill something sooner or later. Make sure we don't stray into open prejudice, boys. She'll use it against us."

"Um, while we're talking about that, Mia . . ."

"Yes, Phoenix?"

"Am I allowed to tell the court about how she tried to murder me?"

"Really, Phoenix," Mia said in shocked tones. "How many people have tried to murder you now?"

Phoenix thought about it. "Well, quite a few -- but with her it was personal!"

"Then let's stay professional for the moment," Mia said. "Both me and you."


	20. Part XX

**Order In The Court: Part XX**

"What were you doing outside the Academy?" Apollo demanded.

Dahlia Hawthorne blushed, put the tips of her fingers to her lips, hesitated, and then cast a tearful glance at Yamamoto. "I don't want to get anyone else in trouble -- I'm so embarrassed about the situation --"

"Mr Justice!" Yamamoto snapped. "Refrain from harassing this poor witness."

Apollo tried not to flinch. "With respect, Your Honour, if she could just tell us why she was outside the Academy, it might be relevant."

"I was going to meet someone," Dahlia said. Her blush deepened. "He asked me to come out to meet him by night -- he was so handsome, so commanding, but when I went there he'd never come, and I . . ." She raised a fragile handkerchief to the corner of her eye, and sniffled a sweet little sniffle.

All the men in the audience sighed.

"Perhaps the lovely fraulein would like to tell us precisely what she saw and when she saw it," Klavier suggested.

Dahlia trembled, but visibly steeled herself. "It was somewhere between midnight and one o'clock. I was waiting in the shadow of the corner of the square near the East Tower. I saw Captain Aizen come walking up along with Captain Hitsugaya. They were talking about something --"

"What?" Apollo pounced.

"Objection!" Klavier called. "Let the fraulein finish her statement before you begin the cross-examination, Herr Forehead."

"Sustained," Yamamoto said, with an admonitory wave of his staff. "Do go on, my dear, if you feel strong enough."

Dahlia tossed her hair. Metaphorical white butterflies fluttered around her head. "I didn't like to listen too closely. But then while Captain Aizen was paying attention to what Captain Hitsugaya was saying, this strange man jumped down from the roof and stabbed Captain Aizen from behind! I was too scared to do anything, so I hid there. Then Captain Hitsugaya used his zanpakutou to make ice all over the place to wash off the blood, and he and the stranger carried Captain Aizen's dead body away. I --" She choked, and wiped tears away again. "I ran back to the Academy. I was so scared . . ."

"And can you see anyone in court who looks like this man?" Klavier asked.

Dahlia pointed a trembling finger at Kurosaki Ichigo. "He looks like him -- but the man I saw had a white and black mask over his face."

"And what were Captain Aizen and Captain Hitsugaya talking about?" Klavier asked, as Kurosaki Ichigo attempted to object violently and was suppressed by the court ninjas.

"Oh, but I didn't like to _eavesdrop_ . . ." Dahlia trailed off.

"I'm sure that you didn't, fraulein," Klavier reassured her. "But perhaps you couldn't help hearing something, however hard you tried not to."

Dahlia blushed delicately again. "They -- they were saying something about Hinamori Momo -- and about the Execution Scaffold . . ."

"You know," Phoenix muttered to Mia, "if I didn't know better, I'd say that someone had actually given her a checklist of the most damaging things she could possibly say."

"How do you know they haven't?" Mia replied, keeping her voice equally low.

Phoenix frowned. "But that'd imply someone knew about us, and about our past history with her, and is deliberately using that to get her to provide false testimony, and has some sort of plot that involves getting both those two condemned, and --"

"Yes," Mia said thoughtfully. "Yes, it would, wouldn't it."

--


	21. Part XXI

**Order In The Court: Part XXI**

A recess had been called after several hours of vigorous questioning had failed to crack Dahlia's testimony (and had provoked several very severe admonitions from Yamamoto, some threats from the rest of the male audience, and a suggestion from Captain Zaraki that Orihime and Dahlia settle it _mano a mano_ after Orihime squeaked one time too many).

"I don't know," Ichigo said, slouching gloomily in a corner. "I mean, who knows, maybe _he_ took over and did kill this Captain Aizen guy in my body."

"Of course not!" Phoenix said heartily. "Why should you think that?"

"Well, that woman says so." Ichigo's eyes hazed over in a dreamy, fascinated, cloud-nine-and-hitting-the-accelerator way that was far too familiar to Phoenix. "Why should she lie about it if she hadn't seen me do it?"

"Because she's in league with the real murderer."

"That's impossible! How could such a sweet, innocent, helpless --"

"Excuse me," a female voice said from somewhere beyond the crowd of defense attorneys. "Excuse me, coming through, out of the way if you please . . ."

Ichigo straightened. "I know that voice."

"Ichigo!" A small woman in a white robe squeezed between Trucy and Maya. "What do you think you're up to?"

Ichigo hunched further into his personal depression. "I was trying to -- guess it doesn't matter. Rukia, it looks like I've killed someone, and . . ."

Rukia kicked him in the shins.

"Ow," Ichigo said, hopping from foot to foot.

"Moron," Rukia said. She turned and bowed to Phoenix. "Good afternoon. My name is Kuchiki Rukia. Whatever my personal circumstances, this idiot here --"

"Oi, Rukia!"

"-- is clearly innocent, since he lacks the _intelligence_ to even have any idea of what he's saying --"

"_Rukia!_"

"-- and I trust you will do your best to help him. Now. Is there anything that I can tell you?"

"You know," Phoenix said, "I think you're the most reasonable person I've met here so far."

"I can even draw pictures!" Rukia added.

"Yeah," Ichigo said, "but that's not going to be much use unless the murder was committed by a rabbit."

Rukia kicked him again.

"Ow," said Ichigo.

--

Phoenix scratched his head. "This all seems fairly straightforward," he said cautiously. "Even if this Chamber of 46 seems, um . . ."

"Capricious?" Mia suggested.

Rukia folded her arms, looking down at her feet. "I can't complain," she said tonelessly. "I hear that Captain Ukitake appealed but that it was refused. But then they organise a trial like this . . . "

"Can we talk to them?" Phoenix asked.

"Well, you could ask," Rukia said dubiously. "But I heard the guards talking, and one of them said that they'd been sealed off because of recent events, and that they were just sending out orders."

Phoenix exchanged a glance with Mia. He knew that they were both thinking about corrupt administrations and even more corrupt people at the top.

"Let's leave that for a moment," Mia said, with a glint to her eye that suggested she'd be discussing it with Phoenix later, out of Rukia's hearing. "Now there's one other big anomaly in the whole situation."

"Only one?" Apollo asked.

"This Urahara person. He's the one responsible for Ichigo's current problem. He was also involved in what Rukia was doing, and he sent Ichigo and the others here. If Dahlia's deliberately framing Ichigo, then this Urahara may know something about the situation and about Ichigo that'll be relevant. We need to get him here."

"I'm not sure he _can_ get here," Ichigo said. "Or he'd have come himself rather than send us. Wouldn't he?"

Apollo straightened. "I've got an idea," he said. "I mean, if it works for guitars . . ."

--


	22. Part XXII

**Order In The Court: Part XXII**

Urahara Kisuke stood in the witness stand.

"Can you explain your dealings with Kurosaki Ichigo?" Apollo demanded.

"No," Urahara said, smiling.

Apollo frowned. "Why not?"

"Because," Urahara said happily, "I don't want to."

"Even though he's currently accused of murder?"

Urahara frowned. "That sounds very careless of him."

"Urahara Kisuke." Apollo thumped his hands down on his desk and leaned forward. "I appeal to you! Speak the truth! Tell us what is really going on! Explain why your pupil is accused of killing Aizen Sousuke!"

"By the way," Yamamoto said, "I'm still unclear about how precisely Urahara Kisuke got here. I understood that he was banished from Soul Society and that certain measures were undertaken to make sure that he couldn't physically re-enter here."

"Oh, that was Klavier Gavin, sir," Apollo said. "He brought him in under the special prosecutor's license for transporting evidence across national boundaries."

Klavier smirked, struck a pose, and played a few bars of air guitar. Female sighs rose from the audience.

Urahara frowned. He struck a matching pose and answered with a few imaginary notes.

"Let's do it!" Klavier said. He played another bar.

Urahara responded.

After ten minutes of silent air guitar and hip-thrusting poses, Yamamoto sighed and called a recess.

* * *

"You know," Mia said to Phoenix, "I'm not sure that Ichigo's response to having Urahara here is quite what we wanted."

"You mean the screaming insults and trying to strangle him bit?"

"Yes," Mia sighed. "That."

"Or why the cat has just turned into a splendid nude naked woman who's slapping him and telling him that he's a moron for coming to Soul Society?"

"Ah, now that's more interesting."

"I always said she was a disguised ninja," Phoenix said smugly.

"You also said that the Steel Samurai was a direct result of the Roswell alien landings."

Phoenix flushed. "I have photographic evidence!"

"Yes, Phoenix," Mia said, patting him on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go question them some more."

* * *

"I am a perfectly normal shopkeeper," Urahara said, fanning himself, "and Yoruichi here is a perfectly normal ninja, and we are totally shocked and aghast that we have been dragged into this criminal case."

"You stuck Rukia in a gigai that didn't work properly," Ichigo said between his teeth, "you gave me this mask problem with the white split personality me thing, you nearly got me killed, you sent us off here without explaining anything --"

"Nearly getting you killed is not the same thing as getting you killed," Urahara said sanctimoniously. "But I'll certainly do what I can to help, if you honestly think the word of a humble shopkeeper --"

"And previous Captain of Twelfth Division," Phoenix cut in. "Ema Skye found out about that one."

"How?" Urahara asked curiously.

"She says that Captain Kurotsuchi has dartboards with your photo on them all over his office."

"Pure coincidence," Urahara said quickly.

"And that he goes into a frothing sweat whenever someone mentions your name."

"Well, there are a lot of people with that name."

"And Captain Kyouraku of Eighth confirmed your identity. Incidentally, he wants to talk to you about someone called Lisa . . ."

Urahara shot a nervous glance at the door. "All right," he said, "there is maybe a possibility that I was the person who was previously in command of Twelfth, but I'd rather not admit to that because I was exiled and there were all sorts of death threats and other minor problems."

Phoenix ran his hand through his hair. "But everyone _knows_ you are."

"Yes," Urahara said, "but that doesn't mean I have to admit to it."

--


	23. Part XXIII

**Order In The Court: Part XXIII**

"She's lying," Edgeworth said. "I have no doubt about it."

He and Phoenix looked out over the site below. It was the area that Dahlia Hawthorne had pinpointed as the location of the murder. Ema Skye had commandeered anyone available into helping out with Luminol for tracing bloodstains, plaster casts for footprints, and fingerprint hunting in the vain hope that the suspects had rested bloody hands against the wall, or indeed anywhere else. So far they hadn't been lucky.

"Oh yes," Phoenix agreed. "I'm not just saying that because of who she is, either."

Edgeworth nodded. "Her testimony is far too convenient. Even von Karma admits that. However, until it can be disproven . . ."

Phoenix nodded. "There _has_ to be a flaw in it," he said.

The air rustled behind them, and the two men turned to see Matsumoto Rangiku and Abarai Renji.

"Can we talk?" Renji said.

"Certainly we can. The question is, what do you want to talk about?" Edgeworth said.

Rangiku sighed. "Look. Do you seriously think my Captain's guilty?"

Edgeworth and Phoenix exchanged glances.

"No," Phoenix said.

"Much as it pains me to agree with Wright -- I think that he has been framed, and I don't think that he would go to such lengths to fake a frame against himself," Edgeworth said.

Rangiku frowned. "Does that mean yes or no?"

"It means no," Phoenix said hastily. "But I don't think that Kurosaki's guilty either."

"The hell he is," Renji said. "He's got no reason to do anything like that, and he's too straightforward to try hiding it."

"There is the hypothesis," Edgeworth said neutrally, "that he didn't do it deliberately, but that he had been conditioned by Urahara Kisuke and his alternate personality was responsible for the murder."

Renji frowned.

"That wouldn't work," Rangiku said. "If you're saying that Captain Hitsugaya's innocent -- well, that bitch of a witness is saying that both he and Kurosaki Ichigo committed the murder together. So if my Captain's innocent, then so's Ichigo. Pardon my language."

Edgeworth nodded. "But for the moment, nobody else has a motive to have killed Captain Aizen. The only person who even so much as argued with him is Captain Ichimaru, and he has an alibi for the night in question."

Rangiku studied the sky. "Well, yes," she admitted. "So could it be that Captain Aizen was killed totally by accident because of something he saw while he was going to meet Captain Hitsugaya?"

"That letter puzzles me," Phoenix said. "The prosecution's given it all possible checks. Everyone agrees that Captain Aizen wrote it. But _why_ did he accuse Captain Hitsugaya of all those things?"

"He has to have been mistaken." Renji tugged at his tail of hair. "Maybe someone else was doing all that corrupt stuff and framed Captain Hitsugaya for it back then too, then framed him for the murder as well?"

"Possible," Edgeworth admitted. "Can you suggest any Captains who might do such a thing?"

Renji and Rangiku exchanged thoughtful glances.

"I know Captain Kurotsuchi doesn't exactly have the best reputation," Rangiku said, "and he's not exactly what you'd call a good person, or nice, or even sane, but even so I can't see him doing that."

Renji shook his head. "Me neither. He'd be doing big demonstrations of his new forbidden scientific advances, not trying to hide them."

"Exactly," Rangiku said. "So . . ." She checked off her fingers. "Captain Yamamoto, no way. Captain Soi Fong, can't see why she would. Captain Ichimaru, um . . . well, he has an alibi," she said with some relief. "Captain Unohana, no way. Captain Kuchiki --"

"No way," Renji said forcefully.

Rangiku shrugged. "Captain Komamura, can't see why he would. Captain Kyouraku, well, he wouldn't, and besides, he's been here for two thousand years, so why do something now? Captain Tousen, he's so virtuous and fond of justice that he'd never even think of breaking the law. Captain Zaraki --"

"Captain Zaraki wouldn't bother trying to hide anything," Renji said.

"No," Rangiku agreed. "Captain Kurotsuchi, well. Captain Ukitake, well, he wouldn't, like Captain Kyouraku."

"And Urahara Kisuke and Shihouin Yoruichi?" Phoenix asked.

Rangiku shrugged. "Nobody really knows much about them."

"No. And Kurosaki himself admits that Urahara used . . . unusual training methods on him."

"But didn't Captain Yamamoto say that Urahara couldn't have got here on his own, Wright?" Edgeworth asked. "I think we should consider the cat. That is, Shihouin Yoruichi. She has no alibi. If she was cooperating with Urahara, and in fact the whole business with Kurosaki was a giant red herring . . ." He frowned. "In fact, perhaps we should look at it the other way. The accusations against Kurosaki resulted in us bringing Urahara Kisuke here to give testimony in court. What if this was all a ploy by Urahara to cause us to bring him here?"

"That seems needlessly complex," Phoenix said.

"Well, Dahlia Hawthorne _is_ involved."

"True."

Renji's frown was deepening. "So if the plot is to bring Urahara Kisuke here to Seireitai -- then what might he be planning to do?"

"I don't know," Phoenix said. "But I think that perhaps we should watch him very carefully indeed."

--


	24. Part XXIV

**Order In The Court: Part XXIV**

It was a very very secret meeting. It was so secret that most members of both prosecution and defense teams hadn't been informed about it.

"They're going round in circles," Maya said. "Nick keeps on trying to slip in questions like, 'So you killed them all, didn't you?' in between pressing her on her testimony, and thinking that nobody notices."

"You are sadly correct," Franziska von Karma agreed. "The foolish fools cannot find any weak point in her statement, however many times they ask or however foolishly they put it. And my perfectly reasonable request for a private talk with her was refused by the foolish judge himself on the grounds that I might be considering doing her some damage."

"How much damage?" Maya asked hopefully.

"Nothing lethal," Franziska said coldly. "Alas."

Ema Skye sighed. "We've been over the location where she said the murder took place. There aren't any bloodstains, but _if_ Captain Hitsugaya iced it over and then the ice melted and the water washed it away, it's possible that there wouldn't be. So we can't disprove that. And Captain Aizen's own sword would hide the wound made by Kurosaki Ichigo's sword, so we can't disprove _that_. And nobody else can testify about her being there or not being there, not even other Academy students . . ."

"That's why we wanted to talk to you," Maya said to the fourth person present.

Ise Nanao adjusted her glasses. "The Shinigami Women's Association shares certain of your feelings regarding the untrustworthiness of this witness. We also share certain of your feelings regarding being able to convince the judge about this. And other captains. So. What do you have in mind?"

"Could her Academy entrance records have been forged?" Maya asked. "If she was planted here to give fake testimony, then if we can prove she _is_ a plant, and then find out who's behind her . . ."

Franziska nodded. "We have applied to see her full background. She wept a few delicate tears about us looking through her private history. The judge refused."

Nanao looked thoughtful. "This sort of thing can be investigated," she said delicately. "With extreme prejudice. And the results could then arrive anonymously in your court record evidence. Is that what you had in mind?"

"Could we have the originals as well as copies?" Ema asked. "There are a few tests I'd like to run on them."

"Of course," Nanao said. "In fact, it might be safer if you had the originals. Spontaneous combustion is a constant danger in crowded archives. I hear Captain Kurotsuchi's had three cases of it already this year when he was asked to submit sick leave reports and Division casualty figures."

Maya nodded.

Franziska nodded.

Ema nodded.

Nanao laced her fingers together and smiled thinly. "Give me a few hours," she said. "And we may have some results for you."

--


	25. Part XXV

**Order In The Court: Part XXV**

Phoenix wasn't exactly sure _how_ Maya had got hold of the Academy records, but he wasn't going to question conveniently available evidence. (Well, not this time. Maya had sworn hand on heart that her source was impeccable and that there weren't going to be any awkward cases of forged evidence turning up and getting him disbarred or anything like that.)

"So," he said, resting his hands on the desk, "Dahlia Hawthorne has apparently been registered as a student at the Academy for a few weeks now."

"Objection!" Edgeworth stated in a pro forma sort of way. "There is no reason for the defense to be commenting on the fact that the witness is a new student, whether or not it is plausible that none of the other students know her."

Dahlia wiped away a delicate tear. "The defense doesn't like me, Your Honour," she told Yamamoto confidingly. "I suppose I can't blame him, but I do feel that he's trying to get at me . . ."

"Mr Wright," Yamamoto rumbled. "If you are merely badgering the witness, I shall be forced to come down on you with the full penalty of the law."

Captain Kurotsuchi rubbed his hands hopefully.

"Not at all," Phoenix said, and crossed his fingers behind his back. "We have here the Academy records for Dahlia Hawthorne . . ."

Dahlia gasped. For a moment her eyes burned like live coals.

". . . and they are somewhat suggestive," Phoenix finished.

"Perhaps the defense would care to explain," Edgeworth invited.

"One should not give the defense the benefit of the doubt!" von Karma snarled.

"Only to crush the foolish fool better, Papa," Franziska von Karma soothed her father. From across the courtroom, she directed what looked strangely like a wink in Phoenix's direction.

"I am referring to the fact that an extra page has been inserted for the Academy dates in question, in order to include Dahlia Hawthorne's name along with other new students. This has been verified by checking the paper and ink and dating!" Phoenix shouted over the rising hum of gossip. "This has also been repeated to add her name to several other classes -- including two here which were on the same day at the same time, and she is signed in as attending both! And her medical records have been completely forged!"

Yamamoto frowned. "Is anyone from Fourth Division here?"

Vice-Captain Kotetsu Isane raised a hand. "My Captain's busy at the Division headquarters, sir, but I can have a look at the records if you want."

"Please do," Yamamoto directed. "Miss Hawthorne, do you have anything to say about this?"

Dahlia covered her face with her lace handkerchief. "It's all some horrible mistake," she sniffled delicately.

Isane came up and looked over the documents. "No," she said briefly. "These have been put together by someone whose expertise wasn't medicine. Probably copied across from someone else's medical information."

"How can you tell?" Edgeworth demanded.

Isane stacked the papers and returned them to Phoenix. "Because, sir, to the best of my knowledge, Dahlia Hawthorne does not have a brain tumour, tuberculosis, appendicitis, or a prostate."

"I've been very ill lately!" Dahlia said desperately.

"And what's more," Phoenix went on, "we've had these forged pages checked for fingerprints."

"And?" Yamamoto asked.

Ema Skye stood up. "I've been checking the prints on these papers against the recorded prints of all the Captains and Vice-Captains, sir."

"When did you get them?" Yamamoto asked.

"Earlier when they were all signing my autograph book," Ema said cheerfully. "Thank you all for so helpfully providing your fingerprints! This will be of great assistance if you commit any crimes in the future!"

"So whose fingerprints are on the papers?" Edgeworth leaned forward expectantly. "Urahara Kisuke? Shihouin Yoruichi?"

Ema checked her photographs. "Neither of the above, sorry. By the way, has anyone seen Urahara Kisuke recently? I wanted to ask him about some things --"

Phoenix sighed. "Detective Skye, we aren't interested whose fingerprints _aren't_ on the papers. Please can you finish checking and tell us whose _are_?"

"Just a moment," Ema said. She chewed noisily on a Snackoo while matching prints. The courtroom was silent. Even Dahlia had stopped sniffing and was fixing Phoenix with a burning glare of absolute hatred.

"Wait," Ema said. She frowned. "I've got a match."

"Who is it?" Edgeworth demanded.

"But this is impossible," Ema said.

Yamamoto brought his staff down on the desk. "Kindly leave what is possible and what is impossible to the judgement of the court, Detective! Who is it?"

Ema looked up. "The fingerprints on the forged documents . . . are those of Captain Aizen."

--


	26. Part XXVI

**Order In The Court: Part XXVI**

"Impossible!" von Karma declared, taking the stand from Edgeworth with a body-check and a snap of the fingers. "You couldn't have Captain Aizen's fingerprints if you simply took the fingerprints of all live captains."

"I got them from his letter to Hinamori Momo," Ema said stubbornly. "Which has been verified by everyone. Ink, paper, handwriting. Right down to the little heart he signed it with."

"Which leads us to a startling possibility," Phoenix said firmly. "What if Captain Aizen isn't dead?"

"Impossible!" Isane said. "Captain Unohana checked the body. It's him. She couldn't be wrong."

"Where is she at the moment?" Phoenix asked. He was aware of Mia whispering to Apollo and Trucy behind him, sending them off on some sort of errand, but he didn't have the attention to both listen to that and glare intimidatingly at witnesses.

"Busy in Fourth Division checking the body . . ." Isane trailed off. "But how could she have been mistaken?"

"The fact that Captain Aizen may have been involved in these forgeries doesn't necessarily mean that he faked his own death!" von Karma rumbled.

"But can you explain it otherwise?" Phoenix demanded. "Why should Captain Aizen have been involved in deceiving the Academy? What are his connections to this woman who provided such convenient testimony about his apparent death? When was this forgery made and when did it get the fingerprints? Would Dahlia Hawthorne care to comment on this?"

Dahlia blinked, very rapidly. Phoenix was sure that wheels of mental calculation were whirring behind her limpid eyes. "I admit that Captain Aizen sponsored me into the Academy," she said slowly. "He said that he had a record of sponsoring promising students. And I admit that it was him I was going to meet that night. But I had _no idea_ that he faked the records or anything of that sort."

"Why didn't you mention this earlier?" Edgeworth shouted from over von Karma's shoulder.

"I was afraid it might bias you all," Dahlia said. "I'm just a frail timid girl alone in the world --"

Yamamoto rapped on his desk. "The witness will speak to the point and without wandering from the subject!" he commanded. There was a noticeable lack of tenderness to his voice.

Dahlia twitched her shoulders. "I stand by everything I said. I don't care if you have proof that Captain Aizen forged those papers. Everything else is absolutely correct and you can't prove otherwise --"

Yamada Hanatarou burst into the court, gasping for breath. "Sir! Captains! Vice-Captain Kotetsu! Captain Unohana finished examining that body and she says it's definitely not Captain Aizen -- why is the lady in the dock looking at me like that?"

--


	27. Part XXVII

**Order In The Court: Part XXVII**

"I think this is a bad idea," Apollo said, not for the first time. "And the door's locked. Look."

"Don't worry," Trucy said. "If this is like the handcuffs that I use in my act, it shouldn't be hard to pick. Daddy has me practicing on locks all the time!"

Apollo glanced over his shoulder at the tagging-along Klavier Gavin, and decided not to raise the whole issue of down-at-heel poker players training their adopted daughters to pick locks. "And I don't see why you came along," he muttered.

"Think of it as a convenient extra witness, Herr Forehead," Klavier said, far too cheerfully. "It's not as if you expect to find anything here that you don't want the prosecution to know about, is it?"

"Why? Do you expect to find something here that's worth knowing about?" Apollo retorted.

Klavier frowned. He leaned closer. "It is suggestive," he murmured, "that the Chamber of 46 is incommunicado like this after issuing instructions that we be brought here, don't you think?"

"But will us breaking in actually _help_?" Apollo asked. "Besides, we're missing the bit where everyone breaks Dahlia Hawthorne down and she admits to whatever she's going to admit to."

Klavier shrugged. "I have no personal animosity there."

"She's mean," Trucy said, not looking up from her lockpicks. "I don't understand why everyone seems to think she's so -- so --"

Klavier and Apollo exchanged glances above her head.

"She reminds me of the Gavinners' first album," Klavier said reminiscently. "**Atroquinine My Love.**"

"Pretty as poison," Apollo muttered sourly.

The lock clicked open.

There was an undignified moment as prosecution and defense attorneys both attempted to stride forward manfully and be the first one in.

There was a horrified pause as the smell of blood hit.

"Trucy," Apollo said sharply, "stay outside. We --" He looked to Klavier, trying to find something to say that wouldn't hurt her pride by simply being _we don't want you to see what's in there_.

"You might disturb the evidence, Fraulein," Klavier said. He looked more composed than Apollo felt. Then again, he'd probably seen more crime scenes. "Stay out here. If anyone comes along, tell them to fetch help."

Apollo made his way down the dark corridor, Klavier at his back (and it was more reassuring than he cared to admit to have someone else there), towards the large lighted room ahead.

It was full of dead bodies. There were probably 46. He couldn't quite manage to count. They'd been killed. With swords, probably. Yes. Big swords. Some of them had been trying to move or draw weapons. Others were still in their seats.

"You realise what this means?" Klavier said. He drew the back of his hand across his mouth, composing himself. "It means that all transmissions from here for the last few days, at the very least, have been forged. But how? And who?"

"Questions," Captain Ichimaru Gin said from behind them, "that I figure you won't be getting no answers to. Sorry."

Apollo jumped and screamed. (It was a manly scream. Really.)

"Don'cha worry none 'bout the girl," Captain Ichimaru said reassuringly. "I just tapped her on the back of the head and left her to sleep it off. She ain't seen nothing, after all. You two, on the other hand --"

"You can't hope to conceal our murders," Klavier said defiantly. His hand moved to his back pocket, and Apollo saw him slipping something out.

"Well, see, that depends on how small you cut up the bodies," the captain said thoughtfully. "Guess we're all going to learn something today."

"But aren't you going to tell us why you did this?" Apollo asked. "Why you killed these people? Why you killed Captain Aizen?"

Captain Ichimaru drew his sword. "Well, in answer to that -- no, no, and I didn't."

"You didn't?"

"Kill my captain? Now why'd I want to do a thing like that?" He stepped forward.

Klavier raised a whistle to his lips, and blew it.

"Now I hope ya don't think there's anyone in earshot who's going to be hearing that," Captain Ichimaru said.

"You forget," Klavier said. "Besides being a prosecutor --"

"Yes?"

"-- I am also lead singer of the Gavinners, one of the most popular rock bands around --"

Yachiru was the first to hit Captain Ichimaru (from behind at waist level), but the stampede of other female shinigami wasn't far behind her.

"-- and I have a fan club," Klavier said modestly.

Ise Nanao came to a stop in front of the two attorneys. "Crisis in the courtroom," she said shortly. "You're needed. Now."

--


	28. Part XXVIII

**Order In The Court: Part XXVIII**

It was at that moment that the lights in the courtroom went out.

"Nobody move!" Yamamoto ordered firmly.

The room was abruptly full of the noise of highly-trained combat professionals reacting to what they thought were dubious sounds. (Or, in the case of one Captain, reacting to delightful opportunity and getting his fingers smacked for it.)

There was a thud, a crash, and a splash from by the dock, and the lights abruptly came on to show Captain Tousen wiping coffee from his face while shattered coffee mug pieces dropped to the ground.

He had one hand on Dahlia Hawthorne's wrist.

It was fairly incriminating.

Godot weighed a second mug in his hand. "Stand away from the witness," he said sternly. "Coffee should not be wasted. Especially as this is my seventeenth mug of the case --"

With a scream of, "Die, Mia Fey, die!" Dahlia wrenched the zanpakutou from Tousen's waist and leapt at the defense attorneys.

Godot's second mug took her in the back of the head, and she went down like a ton of bricks.

Yamamoto sighed. He looked at the struggling mass of shinigami who were now trying to disengage from each other without admitting that they'd ever been attacking each other in the first place. He looked at Tousen. He looked at Godot, who was now swigging from a new mug of coffee.

He looked back at Tousen.

He didn't say anything.

He didn't have to.

--


	29. Part XXIX

**Order In The Court: Part XXIX**

After brief interrogations of Captains Ichimaru and Tousen, the mob was now surrounding the big hill with the Execution Scaffold on it.

"Can you explain what's going on?" Mia asked the nearest Captains.

"Of course," Captain Ukitake said. "That's Aizen Sousuke there with his sword drawn, the one we all thought was dead. And that's Urahara Kisuke hanging on the scaffold with the gag in his mouth. And the big flaming bird which is just gathering itself to descend in fiery wrath is Kikou, the spirit of the Soukyoku, with the power of a million zanpakutou. And the big rip in the sky is where Hollows may be about to break through in overwhelming force. Does that cover everything?"

"I think so," Mia said. "Thank you very much. Except for the question of why . . ."

"Yes," Captain Ukitake agreed. "I think we'd all like to know that."

"Aizen Sousuke!" Yamamoto demanded. Barely-controlled flames roiled around him. "Explain yourself!"

"Of course," Aizen said politely. "It's really quite simple. The upper limit of shinigami power . . ."

"I'm not sure there's anything we can do now," Phoenix muttered to Edgeworth while Aizen delivered a ringing monologue. "Though I hope the prosecution are prepared to admit that Hitsugaya and Kurosaki are both clearly innocent."

"We do seem somewhat outclassed," Edgeworth agreed. "But I'm not sure that Aizen is giving a complete explanation. If only we could have questioned him in court!"

Phoenix frowned. "Yes . . . I have the impression he's holding something back."

". . . and then I discovered that Urahara Kisuke had hidden himself and concealed the Hougyoku inside his body . . ." Aizen went on to the listening crowd.

"Not just that," Franziska said, clearing a path with her whip for the group of attorneys. "The foolish affair has been needlessly complicated, and we know for a fact that Urahara Kisuke hasn't told us everything either."

". . . you mean that perhaps there's something going on that _Aizen_ doesn't know?" Apollo asked. "But he's had everything under control from the beginning! He had Dahlia Hawthorne giving us false testimony! He had --"

". . . and that's why I set up the trial in order to have Urahara brought here so that I could execute him on the Soukyoku and extract the Hougyoku from his ashes," Aizen finished. "Any questions?"

There was a horrified silence from the crowd. The giant flaming bird mantled its wings, preparing to stoop.

"OBJECTION!" The thunder of the shout broke the silence, stunned the crowd, caused Aizen Sousuke to visibly twitch, and made the huge phoenix miss its dive. The bird had to pull up and circle again. It was probably only Phoenix's imagination that made him think it looked offended.

Manfred von Karma stepped forward. "This person, Aizen Sousuke, is in error," he declared, "and we will prove it."

Thunder rolled.

--


	30. Part XXX

**Order In The Court: Part XXX**

"What?" Aizen said.

Von Karma straightened his cuffs and extended an emphatic finger. "You are mistaken," he said. "You claim that you have set up this entire mummery in order to remove the Hougyoku from Urahara Kisuke. What is your evidence that it is in him in the first place? Indeed, that such a thing ever existed?"

Phoenix and Edgeworth exchanged glances. Without needing so much as a single word, they moved into position on either side of von Karma. Edgeworth checked the evidence list. Phoenix cracked his knuckles.

"Simple," Aizen said dismissively. "I was aware of its creation a century ago. Of course, I would have investigated earlier, but I was too busy hiding the evidence from the Hollowification of several captains and vice-captains and ensuring his exile. I believe Twelfth Division still has the documents."

"Ah!" Edgeworth declared. "But if this is in fact the mysterious "Device X" mentioned in the Vizard Documents, it's quite clear from its description that it couldn't be hidden inside a shinigami!"

"Not precisely," Aizen said. "The experiments at the time were incomplete. What you _can_ do is hide it inside a gigai, and then have the shinigami use the gigai. This automatically transfers it into the shinigami's spiritual substance, making it nearly impossible to remove. Unless you're prepared to incinerate the shinigami in question with suitable force," he added, indicating the hovering firebird.

"But how do you know it's in Urahara?" Phoenix said. "It could be in Shihouin Yoruichi! Or in anyone else he knows!"

Aizen shook his head gently. "You don't know Urahara Kisuke. He is a megalomaniac who has to control everything he comes in contact with. He wouldn't trust anyone else with the Hougyoku."

"It looks as if Urahara disagrees with you," Edgeworth said, pointing at the squirming figure on the scaffold.

"Well, of course he would," Aizen said, "since I'm about to rip his soul apart with the power of a million zanpakutou in order to remove it."

"That won't do you much good," Phoenix said. He put his hands on his hips, and prayed for a miraculous revelation or two that'd let him back up his next statement. "Because the Hougyoku isn't in Urahara Kisuke."

The crowd (or at least, those members of it who weren't creeping round angling for a good attack position) gasped.

"Ridiculous," Aizen said. "How can you prove such a thing?"

"Edgeworth!" Phoenix said desperately. "You've read the documents. Does Device X have any particular effects on someone who it's inside?"

"It does not," von Karma rumbled. "Naturally I memorised the documents, and my memory is perfect. However --"

The crowd leaned forward.

"It is effectively indestructible. The only way to destroy it, and that was a hypothesis, would be to conceal it inside a shinigami's gigai and then cause the shinigami to become human. This would degrade the Hougyoku and unbind it, thus destroying it. But this is quite impossible."

"Wait!" Edgeworth took a deep breath. His ruffles quivered. "We have before us the greatest gigai designer in the history of Soul Society --"

"Really?" Phoenix asked.

"It was in his press release," Edgeworth said. "But I digress. We have before us the greatest gigai designer in the history of Soul Society, and the man who built the Hougyoku. If anyone could create such a thing, it would be Urahara Kisuke!"

"Very true," Aizen agreed, "and I intend to remove it from his body."

"Give me those reports!" Phoenix grabbed the papers from Edgeworth and began leafing through them.

"What?" Edgeworth said.

"I'm saying," Phoenix muttered, "that there was something in the Twelfth Division reports about gigai --"

"Here," Mia interrupted, pulling out the page. "The one he built for Kuchiki Rukia on her being stranded in the human world; they ran an analysis on it when they brought her in, and apparently it was very close to being human in itself --"

"Give me that," Edgeworth gasped, snatching the paper from her hand. "And where the gigai was supplied by Urahara Kisuke after she ended up losing her powers by encountering Kurosaki Ichigo in an area which Urahara had been living for a while, and would therefore know about Ichigo, and might even have arranged the Hollow attack which touched off the incident --"

"Precisely!" von Karma snarled, his voice growing louder. "And whereas in the later weeks, Kuchiki Rukia does _not_ regain her powers, but effectively declines towards humanity, **as might be expected from having the Hougyoku inserted inside her as part of the dastardly plan of the scheming manipulator currently hanging from the scaffold!**"

Dead silence.

"Wait," Aizen said. For the first time he looked actually uncertain. "That's far too complex and byzantine and needlessly complicated, even for Urahara Kisuke . . ."

"That is precisely what we would expect from Urahara Kisuke!" Phoenix took a step forward. "This devious, cunning, underhanded schemer would surely consider it a masterstroke! And it can easily be checked. If someone will examine Kuchiki Rukia to see if she has the Hougyoku inside her . . ."

"By all means," Rukia said, stepping forward, very small in her white robe.

And Aizen moved.

And at that point Ichigo hit the giant firebird with his big sword, Captain Kyouraku and Captain Ukitake did something dramatic to the firebird with the device they were carrying that had **MADE BY SHIHOUIN** trademarks all over it, Yoruichi snatched Urahara off the scaffold before it blew up, Captain Kuchiki threw himself in front of Rukia before Aizen could reach her, and a number of other shinigami hit Aizen very very hard indeed.

--


	31. Part XXXI

**Order In The Court: Part XXXI**

Urahara removed the Hougyoku from Rukia with no difficulty. Possibly having Ichigo, Renji, and Kuchiki Byakuya standing over him with hands on sword hilts helped him concentrate.

Once that was done, Rukia walked over and kicked Urahara in the shins.

"It is only due to the dignity of the Kuchiki," she said coldly, "that I do not kick higher."

"Ow," said Urahara.

* * *

"So," Phoenix said. He stuck his hands in his pockets. "It's been good seeing you again. Working with you again. Properly, I mean, not with you being channelled. But now --"

Mia patted him on the shoulder. "Stop worrying," she said. "I'm staying here."

"You're what?" Phoenix yelped.

"They've decided to reorganise the legal system. I think that Yamamoto's taking advantage of the sudden change in the 46 to push a few reforms through. I'm not the only one who's staying. So are Godot and von Karma."

Phoenix blinked. "Von Karma? _He's_ staying?"

"He says he wants to take charge of Aizen's prosecution personally." Mia shrugged. "Don't worry. Godot and I will keep an eye on him."

"Will you be all right?" Phoenix finally said.

"Of course I will." Mia hugged him. "And you'd better take care of yourself, too, or I'll be back to find out why."

* * *

Nemu had cornered Klavier Gavin. "The Shinigami Women's Association requests and requires your presence for a photoshoot," she said calmly.

"Oh good," Apollo said, sidling towards the door. "Then I'll just be off and --"

"You are also required," Nanao said, blocking the way out.

Apollo turned pink. "Me?"

"It was my idea!" Trucy said, bouncing up and down on her toes. "I think it'll be a marvellous calendar with you both in it . . ."

Klavier flung an arm round Apollo's shoulders. "Lie back and enjoy it, Herr Forehead. Who knows? You may like it."

* * *

"I hear that Dahlia Hawthorne's sentence has already been passed," Edgeworth said.

Franziska nodded. "She was going to be executed, but one of the Captains put in an appeal for clemency."

"Not the womaniser in the pink kimono!" Edgeworth said, horrified.

Franziska smiled. "No. Captain Unohana. Of Fourth Division. I believe the terms of the sentence involve penal servitude in Fourth Division for life."

Edgeworth thought about that. "And just how long does life last, here?"

"Precisely," Franziska said.

* * *

"Well," Ichigo said to his reunited team. "We did sort of succeed, I guess . . ."

"Of course we did!" Orihime declared. "And we found the villains who were behind it all and we saved Kuchiki and sorted out Urahara and --" She trailed off, waving her arms incoherently.

Chad nodded. "We did what needed doing."

"Don't tell me you wanted some sort of dramatic fight to resolve the whole thing?" Ishida asked, with what Ichigo felt was unnecessary sarcasm.

"I wouldn't have minded the chance to kick Kuchiki Byakuya around the block a few times," Ichigo mumbled. "I suppose I just feel . . . sort of unnecessary."

"But none of this would have happened if you hadn't come here to rescue Kuchiki!" Orihime pointed out. "And we've made lots of new friends! Captain Zaraki was just asking me earlier when he could see you again --"

"Excuse me," Ichigo said. "Got to see a cat about an exit."

* * *

"It's so romantic," Maya sighed.

"What is?" Phoenix said, already dreading the response.

"Captain Kuchiki told Kuchiki Rukia all about how he was married to her sister and swore to protect her and how he was glad it hadn't come to a situation where he'd have been forced to choose between his promise and his duty and how he respects her even more now and they're going to talk and everything and --"

"Wouldn't that have been a private sort of conversation?" Phoenix asked.

"Well, it would have been," Maya said, "except that he did it in front of everyone in front of the Scaffold while he was holding her in his arms after throwing himself in front of her to save her from Aizen . . ."

"It's so _very_ romantic," Pearl agreed, sighing. "I bet you'd do something like that if Mystic Maya needed your help, wouldn't you, Mr Nick?"

Phoenix swallowed. "Look! There's Captain Ukitake with candy for you!"

The best thing about that, he reflected as he walked away, was that it got rid of _both_ girls.

* * *

Later that day, there was waving and saying of goodbyes.

"I owe you my thanks," Hitsugaya said, shaking people's hands in a manly and adult manner. "You saved me from the death penalty, and --"

Pearl squeaked and hugged him.

"Will someone please explain that I am over fifty years old and a Captain of the Gotei 13," Hitsugaya muttered.

Mia and Maya were hugging, Phoenix and Godot were shaking hands, von Karma was delivering instructions to Franziska and Edgeworth about perfect conviction rates, Apollo and Klavier were receiving a set of brown paper envelopes from Nanao and Nemu . . .

. . . and the sun slowly set in the west, as the attorneys walked through the gateway back to the world of the living.

"Don't worry," Aizen said. "I intend to handle my own defense."

--


End file.
